Lanette Lepper, Bee and Backyard Chicken Keeper

Place of Residence: Hampton Roads area, Virginia (until the Navy sends us elsewhere)

Background and Personal History: Lanette grew up in south-central Massachusetts and never thought she’d leave New England. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Gordon College, with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Secondary Education. After working in financial aid at a local business college, she taught high school math until she met and married her husband, who is an engineer in the Navy. Over the past 12 years, they have lived in Rhode Island, Mississippi, Maryland, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Virginia. Lanette is a co-founder of the Military Spouse Business Association and, together with her colleagues, was instrumental in gaining national passage of the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act.

Lanette’s homesteading journey began in 2008, when her sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33. This prompted a complete change in the way Lanette prepared food for her family, and brought about a yearning for a garden — which finally materialized when the family moved to Virginia in 2011. She has two school-aged daughters, a handful of chickens, and thousands of bees. She is an administrator for the Virginia Urban Homesteaders League, an active member of the Beekeepers Guild of Southeast Virginia, and a Certified Backyard Chicken Keeper. Lanette enjoys canning, reading, paper-crafting, cross-stitching samplers, and crocheting dish cloths. She hopes to become a Master Gardener in the near future.

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